New Challenges and Opportunities in Democratizing Data

2012 Regional Data Summit

Jordan Wirfs-Brock

Matthew Barry

“Over the next decade, cities will continue to grow larger at a rapid pace. At the same time, new technologies will unlock massive streams of data about cities and their residents. As these forces collide, they will turn every city into a unique civic laboratory—a place where technology is adapted in novel ways to meet local needs.” - Institute for the Future, The Future of Cities: Information and Inclusion

The Information Landscape Has Fundamentally Changed

Was

Is

Broadband Fixed Mobile

Smart Devices Voice Multimedia

Interfaces Terminal Natural Interaction

Computing Personal Cloud

Data Creation + Access is Mainstream

True, but….

Democratization of Data (An Expanded Definition)

A Prerequisite. Complete Primary Timely Accessible Machine processable Non-Discriminatory Non-Proprietary License-free Source: Opengovdata.org

Year Coordinates

1790 39.27500°N 76.18667°W

1800 39.26833°N 76.94167°W

1810 39.19167°N 77.62000°W

1820 39.09500°N 78.55000°W

1830 38.96500°N 79.28167°W

1840 39.03333°N 80.30000°W

1850 38.98333°N 81.31667°W

1860 39.00667°N 82.81333°W

1870 39.20000°N 83.59500°W

1880 39.06889°N 84.66111°W

1890 39.19889°N 85.54806°W

1900 39.16000°N 85.81500°W

1910 39.17000°N 86.53889°W

1920 39.17250°N 86.72083°W

1930 39.06250°N 87.13500°W

1940 38.94833°N 87.37639°W

1950 38.83917°N 88.15917°W

1950 38.80417°N 88.36889°W

1960 38.59944°N 89.20972°W

1970 38.46306°N 89.70611°W

1980 38.13694°N 90.57389°W

1990 37.87222°N 91.21528°W

2000 37.696987°N 91.809567°W

2010 37.517534°N 92.173096°W

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Which is (really) more democratic?

No one can do it alone.

“The ability of 5 billion people to instrument the world and share their experiences in a low-cost manner has forever shifted power away from the hands of the few to the network.” - Vivek Kundra, Digital Fuel of the 21st Century: Innovation through Open Data and the Network Effect

Luckily, we don’t have to.

“Network strategies” for using data to democratize innovation:

1. Leverage networks and collaborations to liberate data

2. Involve (unexpected) networks and collaborations in applying data

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/series/reading-the-riots http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/dec/08/twitter-riots-interactive

3. Complete the loop

“Network strategies” for using data to democratize innovation:

Piton’s Data Initiative (A Short History)

1. Data Access 2. Data Interpretation

and (limited) Community Information Systems

3. Leveraging Data to

Drive Innovation

The Colorado Data Commons

and

The Citizen Atlas

Other open

data projects

COLLABORATIVE

USABLE

OPEN SOURCE

ITERATIVE + AGILE

Challenges We Face

Data Control: safeguards v. public good

Participatory Public Services: cooperation v. offloading

More Data, More Models: visible v. actionable

Proliferating Digital Divides: access v. agency

Tyranny of Networks: freedom v. anarchy

“The biggest threat to the open data movement is the desire for governments to operate in a closed, secretive and opaque manner and to create a mirage of openness by releasing low value datasets.” - Vivek Kundra

Discussion Questions

Can democratizing data go too far?

What role should public agencies play in democratizing data?

How could we build an effective network to democratize data?

How can you prove the ROI is worth the energy it takes to democratize your data?